The Wrong Man
by Golden Snitch1981
Summary: Hermione harbours secret feelings for her Harry, yet marries Ron anyway. Does Harry feel the same or is Hermione kidding herself? Will they hook up or is Hermione doomed to only dream about what could be?
1. Secret Feelings

A year ago today, I took Ron's hand in mine and with our family and friends around us, we promised each other our forever. His only sister and my best friend, Ginny held the flowers, infront of her swelling baby bump, while he lifted my veil to kiss me for the first time as his wife. Our mutual best friend, Harry had presented our rings abd was giving the thumbs up as Ron and I snogged. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes as the hint of a smile formed on his lips.

A shadow of sadness crossed his face and I knew he was thinking of the fallen who would have been there with us had they not been taken by the death-eaters. That same sadness, crossed Ron's face at that same moment and the pang threatened to rip my heart out and spoil the happiness of the moment. In the bottom of my heart I had known that, in spirit, Fred, Lupin, Tonks, Sirius, Snape, Creevey, Cedric, Lily and James, and Dumbledore were there with us, smiling down at Ron and me, proud that we finally put stubborn-ness aside and found our way towards what everybody thought was right - everybody but me.

Too scared to let my mind process the vows we had exchanged, I shut my mind down and refused to feel, for I knew if I did I would surely run. I stood like a woman possessed by another, who was speaking through me guiding me slowly, with each word and every motion towards a lifetime of doom as the wife of a man I didn't love, because I was too stubborn to admit my feelings for another.

There was too much at stake, starting with the embarrassment of losing it in front of everyone there, watching me break Ron's heart and shatter the world our best friends were beginning to build for themselves. Everyone would blame me, I knew that with everything in me, so with each step measured, I followed the path expected of me and became Mrs Ronald Weazley.

Molly Weazley beamed happily at us and when it was time to greet our guests, formally as Husband and Wife, she enveloped me in her reknowned motherly hug and poured the love in her heart through me as she welcomed me to the family - a formality, really, for even as we were all growing up, the Weazleys had taken us in during the Summer and Christmas holidays, as if we were part of the family. For me they had been second parents, but for Harry, Molly and Arthur had been the parents he wished he had since his own had been taken long ago when he was a baby, by the wizard who had threatened our own very existances, that same man who many had fallen in the pursuit to defeat. Molly Weazley wasn every girl's dream mother in-law, a sentiment echoed by Fleur, who married Ron's brother Bill.

Everyone knew Molly wasn fiercely protective of her children, even as adults, navigating their way through this often cruel world. It was her wrath more than Ron's that I feared the mostl should I give in to my mixed feelings of fear and a deep-seated affection for the man standing beside Ron, the feelings of whom I was unsure of.

I had no knowledge that He even felt the same way ånd that made what I was goung through all the more crazy and rediculous in its defiance of all logic and reason.

The road has not been easy for Ron and me since that day, with his minimum wage from helping George run the Joke shop, and my own barely minimal income from working at the Hogshead for Aberforth, while I furthered my studies in the hope of becoming a healer, we struggled to pay the bills that piled up. We fought daily about the stress of watching every penny and not being able to save for our own little corner of the world - we lived with Molly and Arthur in the room that was once shared by Ron, Fred and George, while Ginny's room became my study.

Don't get me wrong, the Burrow was my favourite place in the world, growing up, it was just that I craved my own space, a little place that was mine, to fill with books and potions, instead of cramming them all away in boxes in my shoe-box study.

I tried my best to hide my unhappiness from Ron, but each day I felt myself slowly fading away, my powers weakening and when I knew Ron was asleep, I rolled away from him, hugging my pillow tight and let my tears fall.

Harry had always been there, even when I thought it was Ron, who I wanted and he didn't seem to know I existed, and it was his shoulder I cried on and his arms that held me. Harry who had no one to love, loved freely, while Ron, who had everything, played hard to get, only to let himself be wooed by girls like Fleur and Lavender Brown.

Harry and I laughed together, studied together, practiced spells hatched plans to rid the school of evil doing together. It was he who taught me that some school rules were meant to be broken and some teachers were not to be trusted. He was there for me when Viktor Krum broke up with me by owl and he kept me company at Slug Club parties.

By that time though, he was developing a closeness with Ginny. When Dumbledore was killed and Harry broke things off with Ginny to save her from danger, it was me he turned to and we each nursed our heartbreak until we returned to the arms of the ones we loved, or in my case, thought I loved.

The electricity between Harry and me was undeniable and each day my feelings were growing stronger, but he was married and still madly in love with his wife with their second child on the way, by the time our wedding anniversary loomed.

By that time, he was a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, a role he accepted humbly and took quite seriously. In the evenings he would sit at the bar of the Hogshead and we would chat about our day, giggle and reminisc our days as students, before everything went bad. He would stay until I closed the pub, to make sure I was safe and then we'd apparate our separate ways until the next time. Each hug hello and goodbye was like Heaven and the electricity was uncontrollable and I could tell that like me, he never wanted to let go. It is these moments I think about as I lay beside my snoring husband in our quarters at the Burrow and once again my sadness and confusion soaks the pillow untill I fall into an exhausted and discintented sleep, my only comfort is knowing that Harry will be there waiting for me in my secret dreams.


	2. Losing Consentration

We stood in the astronomy tower, overlooking the school grounds, just as we used to as kids, as we did the last time we heard the Phoenix' song as it flew into the mist, Dumbledore's soul on it's wings. Only Ron was not there, only Harry and me.

The light breeze lifted my bangs and brushed my cheeks. I stole a glance at Harry, only to find him staring back at me with a sparkle in his emerald eyes. His lips curled into a gentle smile and my heart skipped a beat. I took several shallow breaths the jump start my heart and just when I recovered, his arm brushed against my own and once again, my body defied all common sense. Ron was far from my mind and Ginny's name never escaped his lips.

The sun was beginning to set and in the distance an owl hooted and then again it was quiet as before and all I could hear was my heart thumping irregularly in my chest and my own breath.

I gripped the railing and stretched so my back and arms were alligned, just to release the tension of a life of struggle and sadness that consumed my wajing life and with a deep breath, I blew it away and stood again, shifting my hands slightly and without realising it, my pinky finger brushed his. My body jerked with the realisation of what had just occured and I began to pull my hand away, but he slid his hand over the top of mine, tenderly and I could feel his gaze burning my cheek.

I dared to glance at him again, wanting only to know his thoughts at that moment, but at the same time, not wanting things between us to change at all.

As if in synchronization our bodies faced each other and I closed my eyes to conceal content tears as he reached for a loose windblown strand of hair and pushed it behind my ear and his hand lingered on my jaw. Like a magnet I felt myself be drawn closer, until my lips were brushing his.

I opened my eyes and stared around the dark tiny room. Ron"s snoring cut into the the post sleep haze, reminding me where I was. A tear slipped down my cheek.

If Ron heard my sobbing, he certainly didn't make it known. There was no move to comfort me and when I thought about it I was glad of that, especially when I couldn't explain why I was so unhappy.

When morning came Ron rose from the bed and set about his morning routine, while I pretended I was asleep. Then he was off to work and I was alone in our room. I listened to the sounds of a typical morning at the Burrow. With Arthur already gone to work at the Ministry, Molly was bustling around the kitchen, her charms in action, clearing the table of the first round's breakfast mess. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was time to get ready. I had an early class that morning so there was no time to be lazy. After having risen and dressed, I joined a typically frazzled Molly in the kitchen. She had just sat and was pouring tea from the pot into a cup. She gestured towards the pot, smiling. I retrieved a cup for myself and poured tea into it.

"Got school today?" Molly asked.

I nodded.

"We're so proud of that, Love, you know that?"

"Thank you." There was an awkward silence and I wondered how it got this way. Molly and I always chatted, never running out of things to say, but I guess I could feel myself withdrawing from Molly, just as I was from Ron and the rest of the Weazley's. "I'm sorry I wasn't up to help you with breakfast."

"Its no problem at all. I know you must be going through some stress with exams coming up. If you need help with any of it, don't hesitate to ask." Molly had been a healer before Bill was born, and so, as I realised, was familiar with the workload I had taken on.

"I was lucky. I only had school to consentrate on, but you're a married woman with responsibilities. I keep forgetting how tough that must be."

"Its okay." I mumbled into my tea.

We sat again in silence.

I couldn't tell what class was about that day. My mind was consumed by the dream about Harry. Years ago at Hogwarts I would have chastised my friends for not paying attention to lessons and never missed any notes.

Now I was like those silly girls, I made fun of. I was worse than Ron in fourth year whenever the Beauxbaton girls were around, working their veela powers on every boy in site.

I hated that I was like this but at the same time, I loved the feeling that came over me when ever I thought about Harry. The warm cool rushes and the jelly legs that told me I was deeply in love with Harry were like pleasure and pain all at once.

I left my class, without taking one single note on my parchment. I barely blinked when Dean Thomas pointed out a spot of ink on my lower lip from where I had rested my quill. When class was over I simply floated out of the room and apparated to the Hogshead to start my shift.

I was not expecting to see him there, perched on his usual stool at the bar, laughing with Aberforth, his black rimmed glasses slipping slightly down his nose. I swallowed the lump of awkwardness in my throat as I approached the bar next to him.

"Hello, Mrs Weazley. You're a bit early aren't you?" My boss stared over the top of his glasses, just as his brother used to when he knew something was not right. Harry turned suddenly in my direction at the sound of my name.

"Am I?" I asked, feeling a little silly.

"Love, I understand you're keen for work, butik you're three hours early."

"Sorry. I can start early if you like." I offered.

"I appreciate the thought, but I couldn't afford to pay the hours. It's been a bad week, as I'm sure you're aware it." He shifted his eyes away, embarrassed to admit that things hadn't been to great for himself since the decline of the Deatheaters, for in spite of what damage the had caused our world, the had been his main clientelle and the pub thrived because of them.

"Hey now that you're here would you like a drink? It's my shout," Harry added when he saw hesitation in my eyes.

I nodded, "That would be great, thank you." I climbed on to the stool next to his and settled my satchel on the bar.

"Shouldn't you be teaching a class, though?" I asked.

"I gave my fifth years a free study period today. With their owl coming up, they'll need it."

"I wish our teacher had been that thoughtful."

"You and the rest of us, but you would have been the only one to use the time correctly." Harry gave me one of his knowing looks and I flushed.

"Not true," I argued playfully. "You would have, too."

"Only because you would've made me. Besides, we had Umbridge that year and she wasn't out to do us any favours."

"You're right," I agreed. I knew he had a point.

The conversation went down the usual path, back to our school days.

"I wish I had listened to you more. I would've been an auror by now." Historie eyes went sad.

"Harry don't beat yourself up. You had a lot going on back then. You didaktisk remarkably well in spite of everything, besides it wasn't your grades that stopped you. My grades were perfect and they wouldn't take me either. Malfoy scored lower Than you but He wasn accepted. Harry, we would've ruffled too many feathers." I din't realise straight way that my hand was resting on his shoulder, lightly. When I finally did, I pulled it away, sheepishly.

"I saw him the other day." Harry piped up, after an awkward silence.

"He seems to have really straightened up. Hé was even friendly to me," telling me about him and Luna expecting a baby. Hé was genuinely tickled pink about it."

"Harry, he's a Malfoy. He is the expert of keeping up appearances. Honestly if his marriage to Luna hadn't been arranged she'd be the last person he'd marry."

"You didn't see how happy he looked."

"Was it a smile or a smirk?" I asked, hating the direction the conversation was taking. I wanted to believe Harry sø bad, but seven years of torture ånd taunting from Draco Malfoy and his father would not let me forgive the scoundrel in a hurry.

"It wasn a genuine ear to ear smile, the kind Hagrid has whenever he shows us a new monster he's taken in as a pet."

I remembered the motherly smile he wore the day the egg hatched ånd Norbet was born.

I decided to change the subject. "How are Ginny and the children?"

"Great. Gin's really settling into motherhood." He answered.

"Well, she is Molly's daughter." I quipped.


End file.
